Hi all, I'm Jim from NYS. Just got the Walkman bug by buying my first one, a WM-F44. I'll be asking for your help on this one and future one. Thanks!
Welcome to the hobby! The whole world of portable audio is pretty fun, plus you can still use all of the gizmos.
I decided to start a little display of walkmans I owned in my lifetime, and a few I had collected WM-2 - much more iconic than original TPS-L2, this is the one that set the world on fire, at msrp of $140 in 1981. WM-8 - big chunky AM/FM/Cassette in the form factor of the Sony TPS-L2, $75 in 1984. WM-41 - significant breakthrough in design-for-manufacturability by Sony, AM/FM/Cassette was $35 with exceptional performance, cutting the cost of admission in half, in 1987. Your WM-F44 and my WM-F41 are the same device with minor tweaks; Sony made more than 10 similar models : WM-31, WM-33, WM-34, WM-41, WM-43, WM-44, WM-F31, WM-F33, WM-F34, WM-F41, WM-F43, WM-F44. The main differences were AM/FM (F in the name), equalizer (33, 43 models), and orientation (44's have graphics for horizontal orientation vs. vertical orientation of 31/33 models.) And a few more walkmans I want to collect to round out my "representative sample" of a diverse set of walkmans WM-F65 - AM/FM/Cassette/Recorder in a WM-2 sized form-factor, $112 in 1984 WM-F107 - iconic solar SPORTS walkman, very rare, fun to turn it into the sun and hear the tape start up, it was horribly expensive $139 in 1984. I didn't want more all-plasticky models than the WM-F41, and I feel like many walkmans were status symbols (WM-10, WM-20, WM-F100) and didn't want to play the showoff game.
